


This Thing You'll Never Doubt

by bluebells



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Abduction, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angelcest, M/M, Road Trips, Season/Series 04, Threesome - M/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-13
Updated: 2013-09-13
Packaged: 2017-12-26 11:16:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/965300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluebells/pseuds/bluebells
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world wasn't saved by candy alone, but it did help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Thing You'll Never Doubt

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Synnerxx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Synnerxx/gifts).



> Originally written for [](http://synnerxx.livejournal.com/profile)[**synnerxx**](http://synnerxx.livejournal.com/) for Christmas 2010. This fic contains bipolar swings between angst, schmoop and copious amount of candy.
> 
> Exceptional thanks to [](http://zekkass.livejournal.com/profile)[**zekkass**](http://zekkass.livejournal.com/) for helping me as I wrote this, for supplying me with collective angel nouns and patiently listening to my complaints at stupid o'clock in the morning when I was ready to kick the angels in the head. You're a treasure.

Gabriel wakes up in the backseat of a cyan Cadillac and it takes him a moment to realise someone actually got the drop on him.

The car top is down. He blinks up at the powder white clouds in the late morning sky and smells the leather of the car's interior, the oil summoned and dried from the road's compacted gravel after every storm. He smells sun-baked rock, sand, and the clearer air that only the lack of human development can give.

The car takes a bend in the road, rocking Gabriel gently with its movement and he carefully considers who could be behind the wheel.

Hel? No: this car was not her colour.

... Kali? That could actually be....

Intrigued, Gabriel pushes himself up onto his elbows, sprawled without a seatbelt across the backseat. Huh. Those aren't the boots he remembers putting on --

"Good morning."

Cold snaps around his heart.

No.

No, his luck could _not_ be that bad.

Lucifer smiles at him from the front seat, tucked against the passenger side door. His arm lies along the seat's back, hand resting comfortably at the leather seam behind Michael's shoulders.

Michael's hands slide along the steering wheel, blue eyes flashing in the rear-view mirror.

"Gabriel," The archangel nods.

Suddenly, the empty, rolling desert Gabriel's woken up to doesn't seem big enough.

-*-

So, Gabriel's luck _was_ that bad. He's pretty sure someone crossed his fate and double-backed his karma for an early serving of 'take that', but *this*?

The trickster didn't deserve this, no matter how many people he abducted for slow dances with Roswell or trapped in an endless loop of Jersey Shore.

It had everything to do with his first job: that one term of employment he'd hoped he wiped from his CV indefinitely.

When Michael pulls them over at a service station to refuel (it's surreal to watch Lucifer patiently stand by a petrol pump), Gabriel discovers he can't leave the car unless one of them opens his door for him. He can't even climb into the front seat, as though there's a ward that narrows his world to that white leather backseat and he wonders if they'll send him over the edge of a cliff in that Cadillac. It wouldn't kill him, but it could still hurt.

These were two veterans of hurt.

There are sigils over the interior, floor and door of the backseat that Gabriel hadn't noticed when he first woke. Written and burned in angel's blood they leave no trace to the naked human eye and, riding passenger, he's as good as human with mobility and powers bound.

The fuel tank is full. Lucifer leans against Gabriel's door, hands in the pockets of his jeans.

"Can I get you anything?” Lucifer's smile is amused and indulgent, like he doesn't have any reason to worry that Michael's wandered off by himself. Like Lucifer trusts him to come back.

What universe had Gabriel woken up to?

"M&Ms," Gabriel looks Lucifer straight in the eye, shrugs with a smile, "Or Ho-Hos, if you know what I mean."

He doesn't expect Lucifer to nod like he knows exactly what Gabriel means.

"I'll be right back."

Five minutes later, Lucifer waltzes out of the service station with three types of M&Ms and a jumbo bag of Skittles.

Gabriel glances back at the service station. He doesn't see blood on the windows and nobody's screaming. That’s got to be a good thing, right?

"I didn't know which you liked, so I got you everything," Lucifer explains, handing them through the invisible cocoon of the backseat. All or nothing, how like him.

Gabriel takes them, limply, noting that Lucifer's lifted bags of white, milk and dark chocolate M&Ms. He's still not sure what's going on here and if the only reason Lucifer doesn’t summon the candy with a thought is that he doesn’t know what it looks like.

“We’re keeping a low profile,” Lucifer says. The question must have been plain on his face. “When we use power, it leaves an impression and it calls to our brothers. That’s how we found you.” He taps the air with a smirk and Gabriel closes his eyes, feeling the brush on the bridge of his nose. “You should have known that.”

Gabriel eyes the bag of Skittles Lucifer's flipping in his hand like a gun.

"You trying to tell me you paid for that?"

Lucifer’s lips tug upwards in a smile as he tries not to laugh.

Yeah, Gabriel had already checked for flying pigs, so he hadn’t thought so.

“Never took you for a Skittles kind of guy. Not too bright for you, Lucy?”

“I like these colours.”

"You'll like the sugar even more."

"They're for Michael."

Gabriel blinks, stunned for what he's sure won't be the final time.

"Michael eats Skittles? Michael _eats_?"

Lucifer smirks and throws the bag of candy in the front seat.

"As far as Michael knows, he's consuming a rainbow. You'll _love_ Michael on rainbows."

Honestly, Gabriel's a little worried, but unless the Skittles reduce Heaven's sword to a hapless fairy, the candy wouldn’t do him any favours.

-*-

The first time Gabriel tries to run, he realises why they changed his boots.

At his third attempt, he gets a hundred yards from the car when the tight, searing pain lances from his ankles to the back of his head, his vision whites out and his knees hit the road. He thought the new marks he’d carved into the soles of his boots may have made a difference. Apparently not.

Michael waits for Gabriel to peel himself from the road before he offers his bag of rainbows. He doesn't shout, he doesn't throw Gabriel back at the car, but his expression is firm and expectant as he waits for Gabriel to take a Skittle.

Gabriel ignores the candy and has to try three times before pushing back to his feet.

"Gabriel,” Michael catches his arm to steady him, dropping his hand when he’s shrugged off. “I’ll remove the boots when you no longer intend to run.”

Gabriel leans heavily on his knees as he waits for the world to steady and his body to stop throbbing. He shakes his head with a defiant grin.

“And miss this? What, are you kidding?”

Plastic crinkles as Michael clenches the Skittles bag at his side.

“I’m sorry for this –“

Gabriel looks up in time to see Michael sigh, eyes on the mountains. He rolls a Skittle on his tongue and Gabriel sees a flash of red. It’s such a human gesture that he almost forgets who’s standing in front of him.

“I didn’t think you would stay unless I made you.”

The sigils glow on the car’s body in the night.

_Damn right, you assdouche,_ Gabriel bites down the words and instead spreads his hands to the desert around them. The moon is waxing, small and pale, behind the mountains and the rest of the highway is a dark, winding snake with them as its only company.

“What are you _doing,_ Mike?” Gabriel asks, low and gritted.

“… I’m gathering my brothers to me,” Michael eventually says and it’s not a lie, but there’s more because Michael won’t look him in the eye.

_For what?_ He could have believed it was a recruitment drive against Lucifer’s tide if only Lucifer wasn’t riding shotgun.

Gabriel thrusts a hand at the devil reclining on the Cadillac.

Lucifer’s leaned back on his elbows against the car’s nose, an open paper bag beside his arm. He could be watching the few dark clouds drifting overhead, or he could be looking past the ozone to the stars, to Saturn, the asteroids or the galaxy next door.

“The perfect son’s fattening the traitors for the slaughter, huh?”

“ _Arrogance,_ I never said I was ‘perfect’—“

Gabriel groans, long and loud, his whole body sagging, exhausted of the ruse.

“Oh, come on, Dad loved Lucy first and best, so you made sure you polished the apple and won your badge for loyalty. Well, take your gold star! Did you ever think Dad loved him so much because he knew he’d lose Lucy in the end? Of course Dad knew how far he’d fall!”

Michael was shaking his head, jaw tight.

“… I have to kill him, Gabriel.”

“Before or after the grand canyon? Are you seeing the fault in your bromantic road trip?”

Gabriel watches the bag crumpled in Michael’s fist.

“It’s been a long time. I wanted to see my brothers before the end,” Michael says.

“He’s feeding you candy like a baby bird. Michael, I’ve seen the look on your face – trust me, this is a bad idea. You won’t come back from this.”

Michael smiles slowly like he knows, like it’s a bitter joke shared between them, but it falters when his face contorts in grief. It’s wrestled and buried the next time Gabriel blinks. He clasps the bag of candy when it’s pushed against his chest.

“I’m a good son,” Michael promises, rough and uneven, “And you’re going to make sure I follow through.”

Gabriel’s head falls back with a hoarse laugh, hands dropping to his sides.

“Finally, the truth – and here I thought you just missed me.” Gabriel shakes his head and ploughs on when he thinks Michael’s façade is threatening to crack again. “Wouldn’t Raphael have been the better choice? He actually _wants_ to be involved.”

Gabriel has no idea what he’d do if Michael actually broke down on him. The thought is terrifyingly awkward and he’d like to avoid it at all costs.

Michael’s hand squeezes his shoulder briefly and there’s a flicker of regret Gabriel thinks he’s going to start seeing a lot more of.

“Raphael would take me to the field before I said goodbye. You don’t enjoy suffering. A lot of people will die, slowly and creatively, if Lucifer and I don’t end this properly.”

“So, I’m your insurance plan?”

“You’re good, Gabriel.” A good son. “I know I can trust you.”

“I was the only one smart enough to desert the sinking ship.”

Michael’s look is suspiciously compassionate when he leans forward and his kiss is warm and dry at the corner of Gabriel’s eye. He stays carefully still, wondering if Michael’s learned how to forgive after all.

“I _have_ missed you. Be here with us.”

Something loosens in Gabriel’s chest when his brother pulls back, a gentle plea in his eyes, and Gabriel wonders just how long Lucifer and Michael had been on this road trip before they took him hostage.

“Do you really want to do this, Michael?”

Michael’s entire body stiffens, eyes narrowing at the question.

“It doesn’t matter what I want.” Michael’s voice is flat and wounded like he’s too stunned to believe Gabriel actually asked him that.

Michael _is_ arrogant. He’s single-minded, dispassionate and loyal to a serious fault. But he’s Gabriel’s family and the Michael he used to know wouldn’t even be here entertaining the longest goodbye of daytime drama. The old Michael was cold, hyper-rational and efficient; he would have calculated the risk of seeing Lucifer before he was equipped to kill him.

It had to be said, the old Michael didn’t have a single original thought in his head and Gabriel had still loved him.

Under Michael’s cracking mask of purpose and indifference, Gabriel suspects that he’s terrified. He could definitely use the guidance of an expert in misbehaving.

Gabriel sighs with a traitorous swell of pity, patting the hand on his shoulder before he makes his decision and puffs up with a nod.

“… Okay. Okay,” Gabriel finally says, “I’d ask you to give my real boots back, but then I remembered who I was talking to.”

“I’m sorry,” Michael sounds genuinely disappointed he can’t trust Gabriel that much yet and the younger archangel realises this might be easier than he thought.

They return to the car, walking close enough to bump shoulders and he lets himself smile when Michael doesn’t push him away. He leans his hip against the backseat door before Michael can open it for him, crossing his arms when Michael turns a more familiar frown of suspicion on him.

“Trust me.” Gabriel turns to the third member of their party, “We’re waiting on you, Lucy!”

Lucifer’s hands are in his pockets when he rounds the car’s side, smile tucked at the corner of his mouth. His eyes brighten, sensing the change betrayed by Gabriel’s smirk and he glances between them with hungry curiousity.

“Oh, tell me what I missed,” He begs, voice low and dripping with relish.

Gabriel just cocks an eyebrow and pulls Lucifer in for a kiss.

He hears Michael’s strangled noise of shock at his shoulder. Lucifer chuckles, then hums delighted interest against his tongue when Gabriel turns, pressing Lucifer into the car’s door. Lucifer tastes of sugar, frost and something remarkably human and stale. His hands are curling around Gabriel’s sides when the former trickster decides it’s now or never, pushes a hand against Michael’s stomach and, with an almost violent shove, tips both his brothers over the ward into the backseat.

Michael’s face is twisted in a confused mix of shock and betrayal where he’s sprawled backwards over Lucifer who doesn’t look like he can decide whether to be stunned or amused. It’s priceless. Gabriel doubles over behind the safety of the spell they originally wove to keep him in.

Ever the indignant one, Michael’s the first to recover. He flies at Gabriel’s grinning face and bounces right off the ward in a crackle of white power.

“Ouch,” Gabriel winces when Lucifer’s knee accidentally catches Michael in the back. Michael recoils with a whirl, knocking away the hands Lucifer’s already reaching for him with a badly hidden smile and Gabriel understands it’s hard to believe an apology given while the person’s laughing at you.

He rolls his eyes when Michael rears back to punch the smile off Lucifer’s face. He blares the Cadillac’s horn and they stop in surprise.

“Peace, brothers – peace,” He declares magnanimously and gestures to the parody of them tangled in the backseat. “Thelma. Louise. I now hold all the candy and the cards. Discuss.”

He plops himself down into the driver’s seat, happily turning his back on Michael’s look of umbrage and the car obediently springs to life.

“Gabriel,” Michael grows in a low voice of warning, but Gabriel’s swift to cut him off, crooning in delight when he spots the bag of Skittles dropped in the front seat. They prove to be a crunchy cocktail of victory, revenge and rainbows.

Lucifer smirks dangerously at him in the rear view mirror.

“When I’m out of here, I’m going to ruin you, Gabriel.”

“I’d like to see you try,” Gabriel can’t help the smile that creeps to his face at the smoulder in the devil’s eyes and he stamps down every natural impulse to reach back across that ward to pull Lucifer into the front seat. The desire is only compounded by Michael’s soft, shell-shocked look of confusion and Gabriel knows that he and Lucifer could make quick work of changing that. He really, really wants to.

“Look,” Gabriel rounds on them, squirrelling the candy away in his cheek as the car rumbles in park, “I’ve been rocking with the pagans for thousands of years and I was never struck down for idolatry –“

“You should have been,” Michael mutters, but Gabriel ignores him.

“—Nobody’s heard from the old man for a long time, so is anybody going to be handing out kudos if you both do this?”

Lucifer looks at Michael from where he’s curled comfortably into his corner of the backseat.

“This is not for praise. It’s what Father decreed,” Michael predictably argues and looks between his brothers with growing disbelief. “We – I _can’t.”_

Lucifer shrugs at his brother’s appeal and points at their driver.

“Can’t? He ran from home. I sang more than Dad’s praises; I sang for you. We shouldn’t have been able to do that, but we did.”

Gabriel’s not sure if Lucifer just made that last part up, but judging by the look of slow devastation on Michael’s face, it’s having the desired effect. Maybe it was true, after all.

“I know what you’re going to say, Mike,” Gabriel pipes in, “It’s all an illusion, but if that’s true… does it matter what we do en route to the final destination?”

Michael frowns and pushes back uncomfortably in his seat.

“You think Dad designed this? Are you saying he’s giving me the choice?”

“Look, I believed the plan – up until a pair of clowns trapped me in a circle of fire. There’s no invisible hand of fate, Mike, _angels_ are the instruments of His design. We know that,” Gabriel motions between the three of them and tosses the Skittles at Lucifer who catches them one-handed at his chest, “Maybe these destinies only hold up because we let them. If we’re not around to keep the apocalypse machine running, life might just… go on.”

Lucifer sighs like he’s lost some internal battle with himself.

“But the humans, they’re… broken and flawed. Look what they did to Eden.”

Lucifer’s not pulling that one over him. Gabriel gives him a significant look.

“Hey, who started that?”

Lucifer doesn’t even pause.

“We’re better than clay. They’re poisonous. I want them stamped out.”

Gabriel rolls his eyes. There’s a lot Lucifer’s not saying and he isn’t winning any prizes with Greenpeace, but he also isn’t the most receptive to self-criticism for reflection, so Gabriel takes an alternate tact.

“And I want to go to candy mountain, but I don’t get everything I want. Although I really should… guess I could,” Gabriel shakes the point off, “The humans are doing a great job of punishing themselves, so what do you want more, Lucifer? Do you want to hit reset? Or do you want what’s in this car?”

Gabriel only then realises Michael’s been studying him carefully when Lucifer glances at their eldest brother and it doesn’t seem like a good idea to let this loaded silence continue.

“Fine, forget about the humans – do it for him,” Gabriel nods at Michael.

Lucifer’s his key to derail this thing. Lucifer has always wanted to rebel against the mould of expectations and at the very core of him, he was a proud, selfish, _greedy_ entity. If Gabriel’s lucky – and right – Lucifer might just want this more than the end of times.

“What do _you_ want, Gabriel?” Michael surprises him with his soft question.

Gabriel blinks under the heat of their stares. He doesn’t need long to consider it.

“I want you guys to end this war. I’d like a simple retirement. Could you make up already?”

That doesn’t seem like enough of an explanation for Michael.

“And what would we do?”

Lucifer tears his eyes away from Michael’s profile like he’s belatedly processed Gabriel’s proposal.

“’Retirement’?”

Gabriel gives him a sour look.

“Yeah and against my better judgment I might even show the two of you around this world if you promise to cease and desist.”

Michael’s expression glazes over as though he’s looking through Gabriel.

“Did you say ‘candy mountain’?”

It’s like talking to one of those imperfect voice prompt systems. Were they even having the same conversation anymore?

“Wipe that look off your face, Mike, it doesn’t exist. But I’ll take you to Venezuela for fresh cacao.”

Michael’s face brightens with a small smile.

“Will you?” He sounds genuinely surprised and, for the first time, Gabriel wonders if the excessive amounts of sugar were actually affecting Michael’s rational common sense and judgment.

That would definitely explain why Lucifer kept plying him with candy. Not a bad idea.

“Yeah.” Gabriel does his best not to roll his eyes.

Michael’s smile melts when he turns to Lucifer in disappointed realisation.

“I don’t like cacao.”

Lucifer strokes a hand up Michael’s arm, mouth twisted in mixed sympathy and amusement. Gabriel thinks it could have been easier negotiating the terms of the Geneva conventions.

“Caramel,” He says and looks to Lucifer in question, glad when Lucifer shakes his head.

“We’re not up to that yet.”

“Caramel?” Michael clearly doesn’t understand.

“You will love caramel,” Gabriel promises, “I’ll show you.”

“I thought that was my job,” Lucifer says, letting his hand curl around the sleeve of Michael’s bicep once Michael doesn’t pull out of his grip.

“You still haven’t given me your answer,” Gabriel retorts, narrowing a look to let Lucifer know he hasn’t forgotten. If they actually agree, this is probably what it’s going to be like for the rest of eternity and he inwardly groans at the prospect of being the one keeping Lucifer in line, but Michael clearly isn’t going to do it. He supposes every ceasefire comes with its price.

“Lucifer,” Gabriel pushes and it’s not lost on him that Lucifer’s insinuated himself to Michael’s side at some point during their discussion. Gabriel’s not afraid of Michael, who is probably not that interested in protecting Lucifer anyway since they were designed to destroy each other.

Lucifer cocks his head to the side, not quite meeting Michael’s eye when the other angel leans in to search his face. His knee’s pressed to Michael’s thigh, he still has his hand wrapped around Michael’s arm and his chest is almost flush to the older angel’s shoulder as he leans against the cushion of the seat.

“Are you sorry?” Michael murmurs, a soft hum of sound.

“… I _have_ missed this,” Lucifer says, smile quirked at Gabriel as he squeezes Michael’s arm.

“Lucifer,” Michael’s tone is flat and unimpressed; he might not be a lost cause after all.

Lucifer’s jaw clenches when Michael finally catches his eye with a look shy of worry. Gabriel sees the words tighten in Lucifer’s throat. He rolls them around in his mouth, grinding them between his teeth before he speaks, slow and careful.

“I’m--” Lucifer says, tightly, “I’m sorry you both suffered because of me. I’m sorry Raphael’s become….”

Lucifer shakes his head and doesn’t finish his sentence.

Michael brushes his thumb over the stubble of Lucifer’s jaw before his hand drops to the knee against his side. Gabriel knows they’re all thinking of that brother who’s missing, the only one of their original glory still soldiering in the field. _Poor, stupid son of a bitch,_ Gabriel grieves.

“I think I should have fought harder for both of you,” Michael says, voice almost toneless.

Gabriel looks between the two of them huddled in that backseat. It occurs to him the car is still rumbling and he switches off the ignition, hand lingering on the keys.

“Maybe I should have stuck around longer,” Gabriel wonders, but then he remembers the storms that rolled through Heaven like demon smoke and lightning, his brothers’ bitterness and rage as they transformed and tore at each other. “I wasn’t going to choose between you. I still won’t. You’d better be serious about this, guys.”

Lucifer and Michael exchange a long look of question.

“Guys?” Gabriel prompts when neither of them responds.

There’s another beat of hesitation before Lucifer slides his hand through Michael’s, fingers winding with his. Michael stares at their hands as though he doesn’t recognise the gesture or sensation, but the night is dark and the only artificial illumination is the headlights on the road ahead.

“Step down with me?” Lucifer asks.

Michael glances up at Gabriel and slowly releases a tight, unnecessary breath through his nose. His grip is white-knuckled.

“... All right,” Michael slurs, the words so thick it’s difficult to understand, “No more war.”

Gabriel witnesses the moment his brothers realise what they’ve actually done and when Lucifer smiles, bright and unleashed, he’s the sun. It’s the first glimpse Gabriel’s had of the true Morning Star since Lucifer rose from hell and… it’s staggering. Gabriel’s so stupidly, weakly grateful that Hell didn’t destroy him. A small part of Gabriel is conscious Lucifer’s euphoria might have alerted them to the other choirs, but the skies remain quiet and empty.

Lucifer kisses Michael, crushing him against the backseat with a hand cupped behind his head and Gabriel deflates with relief against his door. He sends up a prayer to their missing Father, a silent _thank you, finally_ as Michael pushes up into Lucifer, tight hold on his arms, but then something stutters, breaks and everything goes still before Michael pulls back.

His eyes turn to Gabriel, over Lucifer’s shoulder, with the look of someone who’s just been shot. Lucifer’s murmuring to him in concern, hands sliding over his neck and shoulders and Gabriel can see the afterimage of his grace curl around their older brother, but Michael’s jaw’s gone slack as he stares at Gabriel, who is actually surprised it sunk in so fast.

“What—what?” Michael’s jaw keeps working, but no more words manage to form themselves.

_What did I just do?_ Uh-oh.

Gabriel snaps his fingers to grab Lucifer’s attention.

“Quick, he’s going into shock – candy.”

A rustle of plastic and Lucifer slides a red Skittle past Michael’s teeth, dragging his thumb on his lower lip.

“Don’t say you’re sorry,” Lucifer pleads when Michael’s vision refocuses on him.

If Michael were human he might have been fighting for air, but as an angel, he stares at Lucifer without recognition as his entire world view rearranges itself. Gabriel can see Lucifer swallowing his despair and he doesn’t think before he reaches through the ward to touch his shoulder. Lucifer looks at him, but it’s Michael who snatches his hand.

Gabriel holds on as Michael’s jaw works, rolling the candy to the back of his tongue, fingers hooking through his.

“I j—“ Michael looks up into Lucifer’s face and shakes his head.

They’ve never actually rendered him speechless before and there are so many things in his vessel’s face, but it’s the fear and apology that make Gabriel rub a thumb over the back of Michael’s hand.

Lucifer’s expression has fallen dark when he reaches for a lever wedged between the front seat and the car door.

Gabriel sees it just before Lucifer yanks down.

“Get back here,” Lucifer growls and then the front seat buckles flat and Gabriel spills into the back.

Right into Lucifer’s side.

“Are you crazy? Now we’re all stuck back here!”

“Do you really think I would build a cage I couldn’t escape?” Lucifer counters, eyes narrowed.

Michael tries to help him up by pushing at his shoulders, but Gabriel just glares up at him when he slips the wrong way and it becomes an awkward push of hands and knees. He ends up with a hand propped on Michael’s door, the other one on the flattened seat back. His knee bumps Michael’s in his backwards slide to a respectable distance and he narrows his filthiest look at Lucifer.

“And what about us?” Gabriel asks because he doesn’t put it past Lucifer to leave them there.

“I broke the seal, we can all get out.”

Michael and Gabriel stare at him in shock.

“You mean we could have been free at any time and you were just going to let us sit here?” Michael seethes. “I built the trap with you, why didn’t I know that?”

“Oh, you got your voice back!” Lucifer brightens, but it seems false and mocking.

“The necessary evil can slide,” Gabriel groans, though he’s thinking it served them right. He ignores the withering glare Michael turns on him when Lucifer chimes his thanks. “Let’s not lose this progress, guys.”

Lucifer looks from Michael to Gabriel and seems to make up his mind.

“I’m leaving,” Lucifer says and rises to his feet.

“I love you,” Michael tells him, flatly.

Lucifer stops, his whole body going tense.

“What?”

“I love you,” Michael says, more confidently this time, “And I’m not letting you leave after you made me give up my only purpose for the last ten thousand years. Sit down. Grow up.”

He successfully pulls Lucifer down by his wrist into his own kiss, it’s not hungry and seeking like their first one. It’s straightforward, simple and it’s acceptance. Lucifer melts against him and Michael’s free arm moves around his waist, pulling him close.

“I love you,” Michael promises when they part, leaning his forehead against Lucifer’s. “But if you throw a tantrum, or try to leave us again, I’ll kill you.”

Gabriel frowns while Lucifer laughs because… er, _us?_ He hadn’t vocalised his personal revelation that his brothers would need his eagle eye, but –

“And you.” Michael’s attention snaps to Gabriel as though he’d overheard his thoughts. “We’re not letting you run again.”

Gabriel blinks at Michael’s game face while Lucifer nuzzles his ear.

“It’s because I promised you caramel, isn’t it?”

He can hear Lucifer rolling his eyes.

“Oh, get _back_ here,” Lucifer draws him close by his arm and Gabriel thinks he could get used to being hugged by Lucifer, feeling his sigh in his ear as Michael surprises him with a lazy, rolling open-mouthed kiss. It’s possessive, it’s _protective,_ and Gabriel curls in closer because he’s missed them, too.

It’s not like coming home. It’s better.  


**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted at [Livejournal](http://users.livejournal.com/_bluebells/37976.html).


End file.
